


Once Upon Waking

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: F/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-05
Updated: 2007-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-10 19:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/789153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>J'onn comes to her aid after the Longbow Hunters</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon Waking

The scream is cut off in her throat; she trained herself to avoid strong sounds when her Cry was capable of devastating the walls.

Now, with a shaking sob to replace the scream, she rises from the empty bed, and goes to the window seat, sitting there and drawing an old throw over her nude form. She's shaking, still feeling the slice of metal on skin, the slow awareness of pain, and the terrifying slide of blood against her flesh.

He's gone to find himself, still coping with the killing shot, but she needs him…wishes he could see that even if she was capable of fighting again, that she wasn't healed yet.

She might never heal. She might never be able to face a knife without fear laced behind the rage she uses to keep going. She might never be able to be with a man, with her lover of so many years, without knowing the scars can't be ignored. She might never be able to see him looking at her, without remembering how helpless she had to seem in his eyes then.

She might never sleep again without the nightmares, not if Ollie kept leaving her alone to face them…

{You should not be alone.} 

{J'onn…} She tried to pull herself together, but then he was there, his solid form right at her shoulder.

{Among my people, such a thing is shared, to lessen the blows still felt.}

Dinah sobbed, drawing the throw closer, to hide the marks of the violence, but turned so he could draw her into his arms.

{Ollie's trying…}

{But has his own demons to exorcise.} J'onn lifted the small woman, settled in the window seat, and kept her close to him. Her complete ease in his arms was gone, destroyed by a psychotic being long lost to humanity. Still, she did not resist him strongly, and soon settled to listen to his respiration, to the heartbeat he manifested for her. 

{Why do the painful experiences linger longer than the good ones, J'onn? What makes our minds remember hurt for all time, and not laughter?}

J'onn thought of his own wife, after her mental violation. He thought of all the things he had seen in his long years, both on Mars and Earth.

{It is a matter of perception. You have the good memories here, Dinah.} He stroked her hair, touching her temple briefly. {But right now, the pain is so much more raw.}

She sniffled, her eyes red from trying not to cry more tears over something she desperately wanted to forget. {You could make that go away, make me not feel it so much.}

The alien gently tipped her face up, their eyes meeting firmly.

{Then you would not be you…and I would have failed as a friend, in helping you to truly heal.}

She held onto that gaze for a long moment, then sighed and nodded. He was right, and she knew it in her soul.

{So how…}

J'onn touched her lips, then touched her forehead. {You share…by word or thought…and I listen.}

She took a deep breath, and very slowly, she let the barriers slide away, trusting in him to help her find peace, even as she took comfort in his presence.


End file.
